This application relates generally to portable rest or sleeping surfaces and, more particularly, to a lightweight, portable, padded mat that is impervious to fluids and to invasion by infectious organisms and vermin and a method for making the same.
Rest or sleeping mattress or mats are known to the art. Generally speaking, such known mats are comprised of an outer cover around a filler or padding. In most instances the prior are expedients have filler or padding of cotton batting, foam or the like and a fabric or plastic cover. The covers of the prior art mats generally are stitched and secured around the filler. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that a stitched fabric cover provides innumerable portals of entry for infectious organisms, such as bacteria, or vermin such as head lice or scabies, both through the weave of the fabric and through the stitch holes. Furthermore, a cover made from a material with limited portals of entry, such as plastic, which has stitched seams still presents an unacceptably high number of sites accessible by fluid, bacteria or vermin. Furthermore, such stitched mattresses have threads that fray and pull loose and also include rough seams and sharp corners that are unacceptable on mats used by children.
A number of prior art expedients have been offered in an attempt to limit contamination of such sleeping or rest mats and mattresses by bacteria or vermin. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,371,919, to Mahoney, provides a vermin proof combined mattress and spring; U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,057, to Ahim, provides a method of making a protective layer of film to protect a mattress from injurious substances and bacteria; U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,123, to Salyards provides a flexible covering for reducing moisture and bacteria in a mattress; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,294, to McClure et al. discloses a mattress having a seamless, impermeable PVC cover.
The prior art mattresses and covers have several drawbacks. For example, the patents either disclose large full sized mattresses or simply coverings for mattresses. It will be appreciated that full sized mattress are not particularly lightweight or portable or easily used by children. The prior art designs do not lend themselves to convenient storage and occasional use, for example, for convenient storage in a child-care center and occasional use by children for rest or nap. Furthermore, the use or application of a separate, bacteria or vermin resistant cover to a rest or nap cot is impractical. The process is time consuming, requires additional storage space, and requires the maintenance and disinfection of both the cot and the cover. Moreover, the production of a full sized mattress with a totally seamless surface can be quite costly.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a padded, foldable and portable infection resistant mat for use in the child-care environment, for example, that is durable and relatively simple and economical to construct, lightweight and easy to use.
It is among the several objects of the present invention to provide a padded mat that is resistant to invasion by infectious organisms and vermin.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a mat that is lightweight and portable.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a mat that is segmented for folding to allow convenient storage.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a mat that has a cover that is sealed in such a manner that it does not create portals of entry for infectious organisms, vermin, or body fluids.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a mat that has seams with no sharp edges and no sharp corners.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a mat that has seams that are sealed by radio frequency (RF) welding techniques which satisfy the aforestated objects.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such mat that is easily and economically manufactured, convenient to use, and well suited for its intended purposes.
In accordance with the invention, generally stated, an infection resistant mat is provided having individual segments containing foam padding and a contiguous cover of impervious material. The cover is constructed by radio frequency (RF) sealing of the seams which eliminates portals of entry for infectious organisms, vermin or body fluids. Air channels communicate between the segments to allow pressure equalization among the several segments during use. The RF sealed seams eliminate sharp edges and sharp corners. The individual segments allow the mat to be folded for convenient storage. The mat also can be constructed with only one padded segment.
The mat can be constructed with the cover having the resting surface of one color and the floor-contacting surface of a contrasting color so that the resting surface always is turned up to avoid contamination. The materials are fire retardant and easily cleaned.